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| A spiritual treasure house
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Officially inaugurated in 1943 during the troubled times of WWII, the Library of the Israelite Community in Basel [IGB] in fact has its roots in an earlier initiative from 1906 to create a Jewish library and reading room. At that time and until the official opening of the library, there was only a small collection of no more than 300 books.
Speaking about the opening, Dr. Abraham Schuler, one of the committee members, said: „If Judaism, which has been destroyed around the world, is to be preserved with any kind of unity, it needs a spiritual link that incorporates all aspects Judaism. This spiritual unity can only be provided by Jewish books, in which our past has been recorded and in which our future is preparing itself.“
Many Jewish immigrants who had sought refuge in Basel duing the war had a very high esteem for the library.
Valuable rabbinical works
Named after the eponymous family who enabled the restoration in 1996, the Karger Library today meets all the demands of a modern institution. Its varied collection includes books in Hebrew, English and French and covers a wide range of topics.
The library also has a collection of magazines, videos, DVDs and internet access as well as a scientific section for researchers and a rabbinical library with all standards works of rabbinical literature.
The Karger’s Library’s historical collection boasts rare manuscripts like the Basel Haggada and other valuable documents from the 16th and 17th century. These Hebrew manuscripts, which were mainly written by Christian specialists of Hebrew language and published by Sebastian von Munster, are primarily grammar books and lexicons.
The move in 1578 by Basel printer Ambrosius Froben to publish a censored edition of the Talmud was a great technical challenge at the time. The six volumes required the manufacture of more than 30 million handcrafted print blocks.
The time spent on the printed word opened new horizons, despite the rapid spiritual with the new media. Writing in the magazine “Judischen Rundschau“ in 1959, IGB librarian Menachem Ch. Schmelzer commented: „The relationship to the Sefer or book in Hebrew is the true distinguishing mark of the spiritual height that the Jewish people achieved at the time. Where love, esteem and interest for the Sefer reigned, the Jewish community blossomed. On the other hand, despite the indifference toward the book, the community was doomed to downfall and decline, whether through internal or external factors.“
New challenges
For many years Richard Hausmann took care of the library. After his death in 1983, Dora Levinger, the wife of the former rabbi of Basel, took over the duties until she moved to Israel three years ago.
An entirely new set of tasks and challenges lie ahead for Edouard Selig, the IGB librarian since 2002. „There are still countless books that need to be catalogued in order to incorporate them into the university library system. In addition there are several projects, such as the organisation of cultural events to make the library more attractive,“ he explains.
Thus the library proves to be a constantly evolving place with new acquisitions and many other functions.
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